Now excuse me while I go fish my heart up out of my intestines.posted by phunniemee at 12:58 PM on May 6, 2013

I liked the sole woman rocking along to the music in the video of the initial presentation of the song. Go you and yourself for badgers!posted by lesbiassparrow at 12:58 PM on May 6, 2013

Slight derail:

I grew up in an environment where rock music was heavily frowned upon because, obviously, all of those people are just ignorant drug addicts. The fact that Brian May was a freaking doctor of astrophysics was a lifeline to me. The guy is just so smart and so talented and so awesome. (See also: Greg Graffin.)

The badgers are being accused of catching bovine tuberculosis and being a vector of passing it between cows.

Sounds to me like the cows are a vector for passing tuberculosis between badgers. Let's cull the cows instead.posted by 3.2.3 at 1:02 PM on May 6, 2013 [2 favorites]

The badgers are being accused of catching bovine tuberculosis and being a vector of passing it between cows.

Of course, there are lots of other animals that can do this as well... dogs, cats, horses, etc., including, not unsurprisingly, cows.

Ah, but see here: cows are stewarded by the Guardians Of The Countryside who have a mystical and sacred bond with the countryside and everything in it and never do anything wrong or lack the knowledge to make proper decisions, no sir. Cows are for milk, beef, breeding, and grinding up to feed to other cows.* Definitely not for culling!**

*"Meet and Bone Meal" sounds like a lovely date, but alas.
**Unless they happen to have contracted BSE, Foot and Mouth, Tuberculosis, etc, etc, etc. But of course the Guardians Of The Countryside make sure that never ever happens.posted by Jehan at 1:11 PM on May 6, 2013 [1 favorite]

I suspect they think they can increase their yield through the medium of animal sacrifice. Welcome to rural Britain. Young people in the British countryside lose their virginity as soon as they can for fear of ending up in the giant wicker man.posted by Grangousier at 1:16 PM on May 6, 2013

There's more info at the UK badger cull Wikipedia page. One interesting point is that the reason they can't vaccinate cows directly is that it leads to false positives on mandatory TB tests.

I'd just like to mention that his hairstyle works just as well for him as an astrophysics professor as it does for his being a rock star.posted by Cookiebastard at 1:32 PM on May 6, 2013

But m'lud, I was simply sending my terriers into the badger sett to administer a vaccination. How were the dogs to know that these particular badgers were Jim Carrey fans?posted by PeterMcDermott at 1:33 PM on May 6, 2013

"the reason they can't vaccinate cows directly is that it leads to false positives on mandatory TB tests"

...which, of course, is nutty, since the only way to eradicate the disease is through immunization, so that British cattle are immune to it. Everything else is just an expensive stop gap procedure that *may* reduce the incidence of the disease somewhat... but might also help spread the disease, when threatened, potentially infected animals move to other fields -- and possibly other herds -- in order to avoid hunters.

We live a block from the legislature, where there are rallies at least once a week. The other day my son and I were out for a walk, and there was a rally to do with protecting old growth forest. My son was curious about the details of the campaign, so we approached the closest participants, who happened to be young ladies, probably university-aged.

They were quite sweet, and answered my son's questions with a lot of enthusiasm and sincerity.

So, if you're ever considering an AskMe post about dating and how to meet members of the opposite sex, I would totally recommend going to the legislature lawn and striking up a conversation with whoever strikes your fancy.

Let us take a practical case. My noble and learned friend and myself are walking quietly down a glade in a wood at this time of the year, and, as is our wont, stopping now and again to pick a primrose, and uttering those famous words of Wordsworth: "Oh to be in England, now that April's there." Then, suddenly, round the corner comes a badger. It takes one look at my noble and learned friend and myself and turns tail. That is not unreasonable. But who is to say whether that badger has been terrified by the sight of my noble and learned friend and myself, or whether it has a guilty conscience because it has just robbed a hen roost or, as a noble friend of mine said just now, a partridge's nest?

LORD CHORLEY

Browning wrote the poem.

THE EARL OF ARRAN

May I point out to the Committee that the walk which the noble Viscount proposes taking with the noble and learned Viscount would have to be by night, because badgers are not normally seen in the day-time.

LORD CAMOYS

Badgers are not entirely nocturnal. I do not entirely agree with the noble Earl, Lord Arran, on that point. I once saw a badger—I thought it was a deer—come up through a plantation, and it ran right into my legs. It was not afraid of me at all—it turned round and went back again. Perhaps it knew by instinct that I was pro-badger.

Lord Arran also sponsored the 1967 bill for decriminalising homosexuality, and is said to have declared that he had only two aims in life, 'to stop people buggering badgers, and to stop people badgering buggers'.posted by verstegan at 3:43 PM on May 6, 2013 [4 favorites]

"The final version will include additional vocals by Brian Blessed."

If ever a sentence cried out to come after the [more inside] fold, it was this one…posted by Pinback at 3:59 PM on May 6, 2013

Lord Arran also sponsored the 1967 bill for decriminalising homosexuality, and is said to have declared that he had only two aims in life, 'to stop people buggering badgers, and to stop people badgering buggers'.

He is also quite right that badgers are seldom seen in the daytime. As for Lord Camoys saying that he once saw a badger by day, his "I thought it was a deer" aside somewhat flaws his trustworthiness. A man who mistakes a badger for a deer is not fit to tell between night and day.posted by Jehan at 4:17 PM on May 6, 2013 [1 favorite]

Maybe it was some of that dry British wit?

Sounds to me like the cows are a vector for passing tuberculosis between badgers. Let's cull the cows instead.

It's all a bunch of animals passing TB to each other! This calls for THE ERADICATION OF ALL LIFEposted by JHarris at 6:56 PM on May 6, 2013

I was hyperventilating even before I saw mention of Brian Blessed, and before I realized that the Brian & Brian Badger Cover is also a Flash Gordon pastiche. It's not every day that this many of my favourite things coincide.posted by pont at 6:43 AM on May 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

This is so awesome it's hard to believe it's real.

The final version will include additional vocals by Brian Blessed yt .

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